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We send out a month­ly newslet­ter — It’s free and has great flower arrang­ing ideas and tips includ­ing our upcom­ing flo­ral work­shop list, flo­ral design book reviews, how-tos, and more. We send it out each month and don’t share our mail­ing list with any­one.

Since 2010, we’ve cre­at­ed a hot list of what’s on for flo­ral design in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia and beyond. As guest speak­ers inside and out­side of Cal­i­for­nia, we know what clients are search­ing for in the wed­ding and event indus­try. We are your trust­ed resource for flo­ral design tips and tech­niques for all lev­els of the flower enthu­si­ast.

Kit Wertz and Casey Schwartz, the sis­ter design team of Flower Duet, have been com­mit­ted to edu­cat­ing our stu­dents and fans since we start­ed our flo­ral design busi­ness in 1999.

We don’t share our email list with any­one! So, you can rest assured, your email is safe with us.

Hydrangeas and Ranun­cu­lus blooms make up this sim­ple vase design that is great for a win­ter white flo­ral dis­play. Flow­ers by Flower Duet. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

April 2018 News

Free Online Flower Class — Golden Garden Bowl

Flower Duet start­ed an afford­able and fun way to learn trendy flo­ral designs in Jan­u­ary of 2018. We are excit­ed to have many of our newslet­ter fans as stu­dents who’ve signed on and log in each Fri­day for a new Flower Arrang­ing Fri­day class! These class­es are a won­der­ful val­ue at $8 per month, you’ll receive a new class each week and access to all the pre­vi­ous class­es post­ed!

Each month, we’ll fea­ture one of these class­es as a FREEONLINEFLOWERCLASS…so check out our online class­es web­site to see which one is free to view each month and we are sure, once you see what we have to offer, you’ll sign up to get all the class­es now and going for­ward!

Spring Florals

Ah…Spring! We’ve been busy teach­ing lots of class­es, spon­sor­ing venue show­cas­es and bridal shows, cre­at­ing flow­ers for wed­dings and lots of oth­er fun flo­rals this past month. Below is a small selec­tion of some of the flo­ral designs we’ve been cre­at­ing recent­ly.

Spring Green Wedding Ceremony Florals

White and green flow­ers are a clas­sic com­bi­na­tion for any event. For this arrange­ment, we kept the green on the bright side with mini green hydrangea and bupleu­rum. Added some green and white par­rot tulips with white ros­es, and Veron­i­ca. We threw in some dark green rus­cus to give the arrange­ment depth. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Bridal Shows & Venue Showcases

From Jan­u­ary through March, wed­ding and event venues are busy show­cas­ing their spaces and they hold shows for wed­ding cou­ples or salons for event plan­ners. We are often asked to show­case our flo­rals by part­ner­ing with a plan­ner or the event space itself. Here are a few we did in the past few weeks for Los Ange­les wed­ding venues.

Flower Duet donat­ed flow­ers for a Bridal Venue Show­case at the Shade Hotel in Redon­do Beach with The Events Bou­tique. Pho­to by Jan­ice Owen.

Flower Duet spon­sored flow­ers to a wed­ding show­case at The Bela­mar Hotel in Man­hat­tan Beach. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

CMC Events post­ed this love­ly shot of our Roy­al Wed­ding inspired place set­ting we cre­at­ed with DeLuxe Wed­dings & Events at The City Club Toast & Tour Event in down­town Los Ange­les.

Floral Inspired Royal Wedding Cake

Prince Har­ry and Meghan Markle going to church at San­dring­ham on Christ­mas Day 2017. Pho­to By Mark Jones via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons.

Prince Har­ry and Meghan Markle’s wed­dingcake will be made by Cal­i­for­nia-raised pas­try chef Claire Ptak, own­er of the Lon­don-based Vio­let Bak­ery, Kens­ing­ton Palace has con­firmed. See the offi­cial roy­al tweet about the cake:

On May 19, 2018, you can toast Ms. Markle and the Prince on their nup­tials with an elder­flower cock­tail made with St. Ger­main and add a few fresh flow­ers as a nod to the roy­al wed­ding cake which will fea­ture fresh flow­ers, lemon, and elder­flower.

St. Ger­main liqueur is pro­duced in an arti­sanal man­ner, the liqueur is made from elder­flower, a small, white star­ry flower that blooms on the hill­sides in the French Alps dur­ing a short four-to-six-week peri­od in spring. Extract­ing the fla­vors of this flower is not an easy process, and the St. Ger­main com­pa­ny keeps their process a fam­i­ly secret.

THEST‑GERMAINCOCKTAIL

2 parts Brut Cham­pagne

1 1/2 parts St. Ger­main (Elder­flower Liqueur)

2 parts Sparkling Water

Fill a tall Collins glass with ice. Add brut cham­pagne first, then St-Ger­main, then sparkling water (INTHATORDER). Stir com­plete­ly and gar­nish with a lemon twist. And, if you have done all of the above per­fect­ly, feel free to put your name on it, as well. Serve dur­ing cock­tail hour, as an apéri­tif just before din­ner ser­vice, and through­out the meal.

For pizazz and col­or add a fresh flower! There are many edi­ble flow­ers that make won­der­ful gar­nish­es for cock­tails. Make sure they are organ­ic and sourced from Whole Foods or an online mer­chant like Gourmet Sweet Botan­i­cals.

Spring & Summer Floral Events, Exhibitions, and Summits

This is the time for won­der­ful adven­tures with flow­ers! Go, get out and have a feast for your eyes, nose, and palate!

San Diego Museum of Art Annual Floral Exhibition

Pho­to: San Diego Muse­um of Art

April 27–29
9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

The Muse­um is in full bloom for this sig­na­ture fundrais­er and annu­al exhi­bi­tion with more than 100 flo­ral inter­pre­ta­tions of the works of art on view. 2018 Rotun­da Design­ers Natasha Lisit­sa and Daniel Schultz will trans­form the John M. and Sal­ly B. Thorn­ton Rotun­da into a large, all-encom­pass­ing flo­ral instal­la­tion. In addi­tion, hands-on art-mak­ing and inter­ac­tive activ­i­ties designed for chil­dren and fam­i­lies to do togeth­er are offered in the Gar­den of Activ­i­ties.

Free for mem­bers | $25 non­mem­bers | $5 youth (7–17)

ARTALIVE: FLOWERPOP-UPSHOP

Exclu­sive to Art Alive, Green Fresh Flo­rals will once again be on site sam­pling all the beau­ti­ful items they car­ry in their Hill­crest store. Pur­chase hand select­ed cut flow­ers import­ed from all over the world as well as local­ly grown suc­cu­lents, herb gar­dens, and ter­rar­i­ums. Lush cus­tom bou­quets can also be cre­at­ed onsite by their tal­ent­ed design­ers.

Free with admis­sion to Art Alive Flo­ral Exhi­bi­tion

Members’ Preview

Fri­day, April 27
7:00–9:00 a.m.

Muse­um mem­bers and their guests are invit­ed to be among the first to see the 37th annu­al Art Alive flo­ral exhi­bi­tion dur­ing this spe­cial pre­view. Free for mem­bers | $25 mem­bers’ guests | $5 youth (7–17)

Details

Venue

Flower Duet Workshops in Los Angeles

Our April work­shop in our flower stu­dio in Tor­rance is sold out, but you can still sign up for our class­es in May, June, and July! Find out details on our shop­ping web­site: shop.flowerduet.com to reserve your space or send us an email!

Here is a list of our group stu­dio class­es we have for 2018. Remem­ber, we offer pri­vate lessons and pri­vate group par­ties, too!

Field to Vase Dinner Tour Kicks Off for 2018

The Amer­i­can Grown Field to Vase Din­ner Tour is a series of inti­mate, must-attend gath­er­ings that place sea­son­al, local and sus­tain­able Amer­i­can Grown Flow­ers at the cen­ter of the table where local­ly grown food, beer and wine is served by a farm-to-table chef. Each arti­san-style din­ner is held at a breath­tak­ing venue — an Amer­i­can flower farm that encour­ages guests to expe­ri­ence the age-old art and sci­ence of flower farm­ing.

The first Field to Vase din­ner spon­sored by Amer­i­can Grown Flow­ers took place on April 7th at the Resendiz Broth­ers Farm. Pho­to from their social media post on the event.

Slow Flowers Summit Tickets on Sale

Attend the Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit on June 29, 2018, in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. with Flower Duet!

Save the Date for the 2nd Annu­al SLOWFLOWERSSUMMIT, Fri­day, June 29, 2018, in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.
The SLOWFLOWERSSUMMIT has been called a “TED Talk for Flower Lovers.”

This Sum­mit will expand your imag­i­na­tion and chal­lenge the way you think about your flo­ral busi­ness.

Devel­oped and pro­duced by Debra Prinz­ing and Slow Flow­ers LLC, this one-day event is designed to cel­e­brate AMERICANFLOWERSWEEK(June 28-July 4, 2017) and bring togeth­er cre­atives, thought lead­ers and change agents with a lec­ture series fea­tur­ing lead­ing voic­es in the pro­gres­sive Amer­i­can-grown flo­ral com­mu­ni­ty.

The SLOWFLOWERSSUMMIT will stim­u­late your curios­i­ty by inquir­ing, inform­ing, includ­ing, insti­gat­ing and inspir­ing con­ven­tion­al assump­tions as we explore con­scious and eth­i­cal prac­tices in the flo­ral indus­try.

Casey and Kit of Flower Duet are speak­ing and offer­ing demon­stra­tions at the event! Come join us!!!

Save Muir Ranch Dinner II — April 21, 2018

Casey and Kit attend­ed the last #Save­Muir­Ranch din­ner in March. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Casey and Kit had a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence on March 17, 2018 that we hope more peo­ple can expe­ri­ence in the future! We had din­ner on a 3.5-acre urban farm in Pasade­na on the cam­pus of John Muir High School. Muir Ranch is a jobs pro­gram that ben­e­fits the com­mu­ni­ty in many ways. 1) It intro­duces stu­dents to entre­pre­neur­ship 2) it pro­vides pro­duce to local res­i­dents week­ly 3) it teach­es skills to stu­dents from farm­ing, to irri­ga­tion, to pest con­trol, to flo­ral design. These students make mon­ey that enables them to help their fam­i­lies, attend out of state school per­for­mances and it’s self-sus­tain­ing. We pur­chased our tick­ets for din­ner and attend­ed the farm-to-table din­ner in sup­port of this won­der­ful pro­gram because it’s under threat of removal by the Pasade­na City Coun­cil. We urge the City Coun­cil to recon­sid­er its posi­tion and con­tin­ue to embrace this valu­able asset to the city and beyond.

Mud Baron with whom we will all be pre­sent­ing togeth­er at the Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit 2018 in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., is the head instruc­tor and man­ag­er of Muir Ranch and is respon­si­ble for teach­ing many stu­dents how to become fan­tas­tic flo­ral design­ers, farm­ers, and tech­ni­cians.

The din­ner fea­tured fan­tas­tic local chefs, too! We were so hap­py we could attend and expe­ri­ence this great pro­gram in action.

A patron of the March din­ner at Muir Ranch walks back to his table in the fields of the urban farm in Pasade­na. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Pork bel­ly, roast­ed car­rots and a table-made tossed sal­ad were some of the fan­tas­tic farm-to-table dish­es served at the din­ner. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

Stu­dent interns and work­ers on the farm set the tables and cre­at­ed the flo­ral arrange­ments for the din­ner at Muir Ranch. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Chef Minh Phan cre­at­ed an amaz­ing sal­ad that looked more like per­for­mance art as she lay­ered greens with pick­led veg­eta­bles, sal­ad dress­ing and edi­ble flow­ers before toss­ing. It tast­ed as good as it looks in this pho­to. Amaz­ing­ly yum­my. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

This was Kit and Casey’s view of din­ner which start­ed with hand-made flo­ral designs fea­tur­ing gar­gan­tu­an arti­choke leaves (awe­some dinosaur-like) and the best avo­ca­do toast on the plan­et deliv­er­ing by a pint-sized kid who was polite as could be. Cucum­ber agua fres­ca was the bomb. Pho­to by Kit Wertz

Mud Baron who will be at the Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit 2018 in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., is the head instruc­tor and man­ag­er of Muir Ranch. He is intro­duc­ing the stu­dents, past and present of the pro­gram and talk­ing about what we could do to help keep the pro­gram alive.

Heirloom Roses: Rose Story Farm

There were a lot of fires in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia last year and one was very close to Rose Sto­ry Farm in Carpin­te­ria. We are hap­py to report that even though they are not offer­ing tours or have the nurs­ery open, they are still pro­vid­ing ros­es and will ship overnight! We had some love­ly spec­i­mens in our stu­dio last week. Their whole­sale terms are: A min­i­mum pur­chase of five (5) bunch­es is required for ship­ping. A min­i­mum pur­chase of two (2) bunch­es is required for local pick up. Orders placed before 11 a.m. will be ready the same day. Orders placed after 11am will be avail­able the fol­low­ing day for ship­ping or for local pick up as ear­ly as 8 a.m. and shown here are a few exam­ples.

Rose Sto­ry Farm® began in 1998, and the fam­i­ly-owned busi­ness states their mis­sion:

“Our mis­sion has been, from the very first day, to pro­duce beau­ti­ful, fra­grant, roman­tic ros­es in exquis­ite shapes and col­ors. We are ded­i­cat­ed to pro­duc­ing the high­est qual­i­ty ros­es in our gar­dens, and Rose Sto­ry Farm now grows 25,000 rose bush­es, with over 120 vari­eties.”

They named the farm Rose Sto­ry Farm because ros­es are cen­tral to some of their family’s most enchant­i­ng expe­ri­ences.

Book Recommendation: Willow Crossley’s Flourish

Inspired by wild and way­ward flo­ral styles, Flour­ish, is a book full of nat­ur­al and orig­i­nal arrange­ments includ­ing glo­ri­ous gar­lands, posies, cen­ter­pieces and more!

Author Wil­low Cross­ley demon­strates how easy it is to trans­form a hand­ful of fresh cut­tings into arrange­ments to dec­o­rate your home through­out the year.

Fall fol­lows with crab apples, cos­mos, and clema­tis. Win­ter­time offers ivy, moss­es and snow­ber­ries. From the pub­lish­er: “This is an orig­i­nal and styl­ish guide to dec­o­rat­ing your home with inter­est­ing sea­son­al blooms and foliage; be it a relaxed lunch table or an elab­o­rate din­ner soiree, there is some­thing for every taste and occa­sion.”

Wedding Flowers

Flower Duet offers a gen­er­ous wed­ding pack­age includ­ing a trip to the LA Flower Mart and a mock­up design of the wed­ding vision. Check out the details on our Wed­ding Flow­ers page. If you are com­ing to the Los Ange­les area for your wed­ding, we are your Los Ange­les wed­ding des­ti­na­tion florist!